Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
Biology 1 session started with the question, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” and then progressed to exploring the process of scientific discovery and experimentation. The learners worked hard to answer the foundational question: “Is Evolution the Ultimate Scientific Authority?”
Here’s some of the experiments they did, along with their findings.
Here’s some of the experiments they did, along with their findings.
Plant Week - Carnation Experiment:
After evaluating the 1st carnation experiment, what conclusions did you come to?
- Carnations absorb water and the water goes to the petals. The petals turned different colors depending on what color water they were in, and I thought that was very interesting because before we did the experiment I thought the stems of the flowers would be different colors, not the petals.
- I think that the knife was not sharp enough, that’s why the experiment didn't work all that well.
- Carnations die easily.
If you could do it over again, what would you do differently?
- Cut the flower stems better and make the colors of the water very dark and with tons of food coloring. Also make the cups taller.
- I would use a sharper knife, put them outside, and not use as much food coloring.
Cells Week - DNA Experiment:
1) your observations and findings, and 2) unanswered questions sparked from the experience.
- Your Observations:
- With the half peas the DNA was not grabbing very well but we still had a lot, with the spinach one there was no DNA, but with the strawberry one then It worked soooooo well the DNA grabbed and it looked tasty but you need not worry I did not drink it.
- The DNA sort of disappeared once we took it out of the test tubes and turned into salt (I think)
- The salt was what held the DNA together.
- Unanswered questions:
- Why was the spinach DNA so much different from the Split pea DNA?
- What does it look like under a microscope?
Humans Week:
What was the most interesting thing you learned about humans during humans week?
- I learned that there is only one human species alive today, but that there was more than one species on the earth at one point.
- Just sitting can make you fat.
- A man (Leonid Rogozov) had to cut out his own appendix.
What would you like to learn more about the human race?
More about exactly how our bodies work, and why we get the hiccups.
- Anatomy. I would like to learn more about how the human body works.
Animal Week - Frog Dissection
What was the most interesting thing about the frog dissection?
- Katie & Saulo’s frog was a female, and ours was a male.
- It was cool to see the difference inside of the frogs. (eggs vs. no eggs)
